Speaker 1: Hey, it's Jeff with YourLearningCareer.com. If you're responsible for delivering or designing your new employee orientation, then you're probably always looking for different activities, ways to make it more fun, more interactive. And so that's what I want to talk to you about here today. I have, over the past 25 years, I have taught hundreds of new employee orientations for companies big and small, including Walt Disney World traditions. So I want to share with you some of the activities and things that I've used and had success with. The first thing I recommend is to find a good icebreaker. I love icebreakers. I especially love them for new employee orientation. Because remember, these are all, they're all new, they don't know each other. So you want to have some way to break the ice and get people comfortable. Now to help you with that, I'm going to put up here a link to a playlist. I actually, one of the things I like to do here is put different activities that I find. And I've got some videos on those. So I'll put the link there. So that can help you. And your icebreaker doesn't need to be complicated. They can be very simple to be effective. And as an example, at Walt Disney World, the icebreaker we used was really, it was just having people tell us their names and where they were going to be working. And then we might ask them their favorite Disney character or something like that. But we also had these little prizes that we gave out. I'm doing this because they were these little plastic figures, like little plastic Disney figures. And so we use those as an incentive to get people to volunteer to go next. And that was really fun. And like I said, very simple, but very effective. And another icebreaker, actually, one of my favorites is one I used when I worked for Houston Methodist Hospital System. And that was a bingo game. And basically we just, we had a bingo sheet. We had the name of the company across the bingo sheet. And then in the spaces, instead of numbers, we had little phrases of things that might apply to people. So something like, likes football, has been skiing, has been to Europe, different things like that. And they can be whatever you want. But you fill up the bingo sheet with these different things. And then when you start the bingo game, you just, you have people get up with their bingo sheets. They walk around the room. They ask each other the questions. And when you find someone who, like I said, loves football. So if you find someone who loves football, you write their name down. And so it's a great way to not only get people up out of their seats, but it also helps them to start to get to know each other. It's a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun with the icebreaker. And again, it's a really easy one to put together. I definitely recommend you look at some icebreakers. Number two, game shows. Now I know you might think, oh, game show. Everyone does that. And yes, everyone does. And you know why? Because they work. People like them. They're familiar. Whatever game show you like, it can be like a classic, like Jeopardy, Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune. I've done Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. You can really have a lot of fun with the game shows. And especially if you like to ham it up, you can get theme music and you can be a host. I mean, just as an example, like one of my topics at the hospital new employee orientation was tuberculosis. So I created a game called TB Feud. And survey says, you know, I did the whole bit. And they loved it. I like to ham it up and be the host. I like to have the music. So I have a lot of fun with it. By the way, if you would like, I actually have a video. I'm going to link to it up here. I have a video about how to create a Jeopardy style game using PowerPoint. So that might be a place to start. You know, if you're not sure, oh, how do I build all that or whatever, I've got a video that will help you with that. So check that out. Number three, a group tour. Basically, this gives your class a chance to get up and get out of the classroom. And for example, at Disney World, we actually would leave the classroom and go over to the Magic Kingdom and go on a tour in the tunnels under the Magic Kingdom. And not only was it fun, because that's pretty cool to get to go do that, but also it helped teach some of the concepts we were talking about. In class, we would talk about being backstage and on stage. And then this way, by actually going into a backstage area, we really could show that. And so that's the great thing if you can do something like that. Now, again, of course, you're not going to go into the Magic Kingdom. But even if you just go around your building or if you have a campus, whatever the case, because we did this at the hospital, too, I would take them on a quick little tour because there were some really great things to show around the hospital. So when you can do that, when you can just take them around, show them different places of interest, and if you can relate it back to some of the concepts that you're trying to teach them, all the better. So I think group tours are a really great way to add fun and interactivity to your new employee orientation. Related to group tours, another way to get them out of the classroom and just doing something a little more active, scavenger hunts. I usually try to keep them pretty simple. You can, I mean, you can certainly make it elaborate. You can do a whole thing where they take pictures and all of this. And I know a lot of companies do that and it's very well received. I have typically kept it simple. I have a question sheet of things I want them to find. Maybe they have to answer the question or they have to fill in a blank, something like that, because usually time is a consideration. And so I may or may not have time to do something really elaborate. But even just a simple question sheet, a well-thought-out question, and having them go out, find the answers, come back, you do a debrief, this can be a really great way to add some fun and interactivity to your new employee orientation. Number five, role plays. There's almost always some kind of concept that you want to teach in your new employee orientation where a role play can really help. One example is customer service where maybe you have a person come up and they are the guest or the customer. You have someone play the employee and you give them a scenario. So that's one way. And that's actually something we did at Disney World. It's something we did at the hospital. And that's just one example. But if you're teaching sales, leadership, whatever you want to teach in your new employee orientation, role plays can be a really great way to help people practice the skill and really get a better understanding for it. And finally, one of my very favorite ways to add fun and interactivity to new employee orientation is through group teachbacks. And basically what that is, is it's taking a topic that you've covered and then letting the class teach it back to each other. And one of the ways I did this, so for example, at Houston Methodist Hospital, we had a lot of different safety topics like fire safety, for example. And I would take the group, I would take the class, I would put them into groups and each group would get assigned a topic. And then it was up to them to come up with how they were going to teach that topic to the rest of the class. And I very much encouraged them to be creative. I would tell them, oh, you can, you know, you can do a skit, you can do a role play, you can do a poem, you can do a rap. I gave them all kinds of options and I let them do whatever they wanted. If they wanted to use props, they could do that. And it was awesome. It was so fun to see what people would come up with. Every time I did it, I was always amazed at the creativity. So that is one, like for me, that is one of my very favorite ways to add that interactivity into your new employee orientation. If you'd like some additional tips and tricks on new employee orientation, don't forget to check out the link I'm going to put in the description. Check out my playlist of activities. And I also have a video called Your New Employee Orientation Sucks and Here's Why. So check that out as well. Love to hear from you in the comments. And if you found any of this helpful, please give a like. Thanks and we'll see you next time.